2011 Rugby World Cup

Looks like the Eagles are going all-in on the Italy game.
http://news.yahoo.com/14-changes-us-team-face-australia-032630128.html

 

Eagles thrashed 65-7 by the Wallabies. Italy beat Russia 53-17.

 

U.S. finishes 1-3 after losing 27-10 to Italy. Hopefully a few more Americans head overseas to play professionally because a pro league won't be launched here.

 

England rally past Scotland, 16-12. Scotland are out unless Argentina lose to Georgia without a losing bonus point.

Tonga shock France, 19-14, so that loss to Canada turns out to be massive, because they finish two points behind France. Tonga would have needed a bonus-point win to qualify for the quarters.

 

I watched Tonga and France last night. Like they did against Canada the Tongans beat the dog snot out of the French, actually the teams beat the dog snot out of each other. Some sloppy handling errors but a very entertaining game.

Tongans semmed to really demoralize the French but could have been a matter of the French knowing that they were thru and not caring as much. They did re-affirm their reputation for dirty play though.

The draw agains Japan is bighting the Canadians in the ass. They could have guarnateed themselves 3rd place and automatic qualifying for newt RWC but now not so much.

I am now waiting for the Canadians to beat the All Blacks to advance

 

I find it darn confusing that both the Springboks and the Wallabies both wear green and yellow uniforms.

 

Big blow for New Zealand, who lose star Dan Carter for the rest of the tournament.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/15135350.stm

This is on the level of Brady being out for the Patriots or Manning for the Colts, although the individual value of any one player is probably not as significant as in football.

 

Canada loses to the All Blacks 79-15. Canada did as well as they could under the circumstances but it was the rugby equivalent of a Team Canada hockey game against Team Japan.

Watched about half the match. Kudos to TSN for their coverage.

 

Yeah I agree, thought it would be a little closer though. That tie with Japan and loss to France hurts that much more now. Will have to requalify all over again.

 

Not really if you've watched rugby for a while. What's weird is seeing France change the shade of its uniform several times over the past five years.

Wales into the quarters with a 66-0 thumping of Fiji. Surprised by Fiji's performance, but sanctions are taking their toll on athletics in the country.

 

So after a month of pool play the top eight teams in the world have advanced to the quarterfinals.

However, due to the way the pools were set up, teams 1, 2 and 3, (New Zealand, South Africa, Australia) are all on the same side of the bracket.

Quarters look like this (world ranking):

Ireland (6) v. Wales (7)
England (4) v. France (5)

South Africa (2) v. Australia (3)
New Zealand (1) v. Argentina (8)

This also means it will be a Northern Hemisphere v. Southern Hemisphere championship game.

 

Wales had their captain sent off after 20 minutes against France in the semis, but they've just scored a try to make it 9-8, but dinged the conversion off the post. They'll have to score again.